Hopeful Thoughts

The world can always use more hope. When you have hope, you have the ability to imagine and create a better world. But hope can feel very rare and fragile, sometimes. Big, terrible things – and small, annoying things, too – have a way of eating away at it. Everything from acts of terror to bad traffic has its way with hope, until you are left feeling crumpled and small, like a piece of paper someone dropped on the floor and forgot about. And this week, especially, I’ve felt a dearth of hope.

I like to believe we don’t have to accept hopelessness. With effort, we can cultivate hope. To do that, we need to seek it out and nurture it. One of the easiest ways to do that, in my experience, is by thinking hopeful thoughts. It’s a little bit Pollyanna-ish, perhaps, but it works for me. What’s more, in some situations when the bad-ness feels too big, it’s the only cogent response that I can form. So, today, thinking hopeful thoughts is just what I’m doing.

My Hopeful Thoughts

1. Seeing plants grow from seed. It’s like a mini-miracle.
2. The way the whole world smells so fresh and clean after it rains.
3. A cupboard full of fabric, just waiting for me to do some sewing.
4. The perfect combination of gooiness and crumble in a freshly-baked chocolate chip cookie.
5. The way dandelions look, dotting a farmers’ field. They’re weeds, but they’re very cheerful weeds.
6. Kittens – full stop.
7. Wearing socks you knit yourself … or that someone very special knit for you.
8. Dreaming vacation dreams.
9. The way it feels to dance around my kitchen with my kids.
10. Cherry blossoms.
11. Watching a toddler fall down and get back up again (and again and again) on wobbly little legs.
12. A fuzzy, warm sweater on a chilly afternoon.
13. Watching my babies sleep.
14. A cupboard full of tea.
15. Days that are long enough, and warm enough, to head to the playground after dinner.

What are your hopeful thoughts? Let’s kick off the weekend on an up note!

Spring. Even in the rain. The fresh green, the new flowers, the promise of warmer days and the promise of summer’s bounty. Spring. For me it’s like winter is the season of waiting, spring is the reward!